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Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 16

Introduction

Liszt’s comprehensively catholic tastes in musical style happily embraced Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. He was, in fact, one of its earliest admirers, and a generous supporter of the then little-known Bergen-born composer. The concerto was composed in 1868, not in Norway but in Denmark. In order to work undisturbed, the hypersensitive Grieg had sought some tranquil rural refuge, and found it in the picture-postcard village of Sölleröd. Peace was further ensured by the dispatch of his wife and presumably less than tranquil baby to her parents in Copenhagen. The composer, however, was not entirely alone—he had brought along two friends for company, the publisher Emil Horneman and the pianist Edmund Neupert. Neupert was to premiere the piece, and it is evident that he and Grieg collaborated on the piano-writing, although the rumour that the concerto’s cadenza was actually written by the pianist is an exaggeration. Nevertheless, Neupert scored a stunning success at the first performance in Copenhagen the following year. Anton Rubinstein was in attendance—indeed, he even lent his piano for the occasion—as was the Danish composer Niels Gade and a host of lesser luminaries. All of them ‘applauded with all their might’, Neupert later wrote to Grieg. The latter, frustratingly, could not be present at his own triumph on account of unavoidable commitments in Norway.

Despite this enthusiastic reception, Grieg actually had some difficulty in persuading a publisher to accept the concerto—surely one of the ironies of business history. In fact, the piece was ushered into print only in 1872. It was, therefore, with merely the manuscript in his hand that Grieg visited Liszt in Rome in 1870 in order to get the great man’s blessing for his creative efforts. Liszt, surrounded by a coterie of admiring female acolytes, sight-read the piece with expert aplomb. He was gratifyingly captivated by the national elements in the work, and especially the modal inflections of the grand tune at the close. According to Grieg himself: ‘He stretched out his arm commandingly like an emperor and shouted “G, G! Not G sharp! Bravo!”.’ Taking farewell of his delighted younger colleague, he added the unforgettable words: ‘You carry on, my friend. You have the right stuff in you. And don’t ever let them frighten you!’

It is simple to see what attracted Liszt and Rubinstein in what was soon to become the most popular of all concertos. There is, to be sure, little that is original about the structure of the work—a more or less ‘sonata-form-made-easy’ Allegro molto moderato first movement, a hymn-like Adagio second movement (shades of Beethoven’s Emperor here), and an acerbically bouncy Allegro moderato molto e marcato finale, clearly influenced by the vigorous Halling folk-dance (in Grieg’s day a fixture at Norwegian weddings). But what really scores is the concerto’s magnificently memorable melodic invention—still irresistible even after 140 years of over-exposure—and the quasi-herbal intensity of its harmonization.

The latter has often-overlooked links to Mendelssohn’s so-called ‘Ossianic manner’: not surprisingly, perhaps, as both composers were influenced by Nordic national music. Indeed, the first subject tune of Grieg’s opening movement has a very similar harmonic and melodic outline to the Allegro theme of the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, just as the famous ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ from Peer Gynt exactly follows a harmonic scheme from the Hebrides Overture (it is no coincidence that the Grieg pieces are also in the same keys as the Mendelssohn). Another unmistakeable allusion is to Schumann’s piano concerto. Grieg obviously adapted its opening flourish to begin his own work—possibly a memory of student days in Leipzig, when he heard Clara Schumann herself play her husband’s masterpiece.

But if the Grieg concerto looks back to Schumann and Mendelssohn, it also looks forward to Ignacy Paderewski, who might almost have had the Norwegian composer’s score wide open on his desk when he wrote his own A minor piano concerto in 1888. Grieg’s wonderful work had swiftly become a template for the ‘national’ concerto style. Now, Paderewski’s piece is an impressive achievement—so why is it so little played in comparison to its forebear? The answer is simple: Grieg, like the devil, has all the best tunes.

Recordings

Two complete recitals recorded at Illinois University on 17 and 18 March 1949 and some bonus recordings originally broadcast on 7 March 1937. Almost all the works included in this programme are new additions to the Myra Hess discography.» More

Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef studied with Franz Liszt and also became a close friend of Grieg, who strongly admired his playing. He was a mainstay of the HMV catalogue in the 1920s and this set brings together for the first time his complete re ...» More

A concerto album from Stephen Hough is always a significant event and for this new recording Stephen travelled to Norway to join forces with Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic. Performances are exciting and magisterial, Stephen’s breathtaki ...» More